Between Thanksgiving and Christmas my bride and I usually send Christmas donations to groups we support. This is the time when we also make a substitute donation to Catholic groups we endorse in lieu of contributing anything to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Despite window dressing efforts at reform, the CCHD is still in the business of handing out money, given by good-hearted Catholics who think they are contributing money to help people down on their luck, to left-wing pressure groups, many of whom espouse causes directly contrary to the teachings of the Church.

The Lepanto Institute gives us some details on just what a corrupt organization the CCHD is:

The newly launched Lepanto Institute published a report today, which shows a conflict of interest for Ralph McCloud, the Director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

McCloud, who approves grants distributed to community organizing groups on behalf of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, is a member of the board of directors of Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ). Two affiliates of Interfaith Worker Justice received CCHD grants for fiscal year 2014-2015.

The IWJ philosophy is another issue of scandal for an organization that is part of the Catholic Church.

“Ralph McCloud was provided with the facts in 2012, with our showing that the leadership of Interfaith Worker Justice is filled with self-professed pro-abortion, pro-homosexual Marxists,” said Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute. “By joining the board of directors of IWJ, McCloud has created for himself the very definition of a conflict of interest, and accepted the role of overseeing distribution of funds to an organization in conflict with the Catholic Church’s teaching.”

A report on the leadership of Interfaith Worker Justice is available here.

“In 2012, my colleagues and I published a report on one of the two IWJ affiliates that are currently receiving grants from the CCHD which are in violation of CCHD guidelines,” Hichborn said.

“How can an individual serve the Church while sitting on the board of IWJ, and in fact approve grants for affiliates of this organization? It seems impossible,” Hichborn concluded. “Our Blessed Lord said that man cannot serve two masters, but in the case of IWJ and the CCHD, that is precisely what McCloud is trying to do.”

And this:

The Lepanto Institute issued a report exposing the activities of an organization which received a $35,000 grant from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). According to the report, the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC) launched its own gay straight alliance in 2014, participated in a homosexuality activism coordination event in 2013, and its director of operations signed a letter supporting same-sex marriage.

“CCHD grant guidelines are very clear. CCHD says it will not fund organizations which are taking actions in violation of Catholic moral teaching,” said Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute. “This is just one more in the long list of failures in the CCHD’s self-proclaimed rigorous screening process.”

The CCHD’s grant guidelines state, “Organizations that receive CCHD funds must not participate in or promote activities that contradict the moral and social teachings of the Catholic Church.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2357 specifically states, regarding homosexual acts, “under no circumstances can they be approved.”

“What’s perplexing is that in 2012, The Reform CCHD Now coalition sent a profile on the problems with NWBCCC to the Archdiocese of New York, and the response we received was that they decided not to fund that organization before we even sent them the letter,” said Hichborn. “So, why are they funding them this year, now that it’s clear that things have gotten worse?”

Go here to read the rest. None of this should come as a surprise to anyone. The man the bishops have at the head of the CCHD, Ralph McCloud, was the campaign treasurer for Wendy Davis a/k/a Abortion Barbie, who recently got trounced in her campaign to ride dead fetuses into the Governor’s mansion in Texas, during her first run for the State Senate in Texas. I posted this in 2011:

In a dog bites man story, and an example of good blog journalism, Creative Minority Report has broken the news that the head of the CCHD, Ralph McCloud, while he was head of the CCHD, was the campaign treasurer for pro-abort Wendy Davis in her successful run in 2008 for the Texas State Senate:

While the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has come under well deserved scrutiny for supporting groups such as ACORN and groups with ties to promoting abortion, CMR has uncovered that Ralph McCloud, while heading the CCHD in 2008, was simultaneously working as a highly placed campaign official for a pro-choice politician seeking to unseat a pro-life politician.

As you likely know, CCHD is the bishops’ anti-poverty program which funds community organizing and economic development projects and has been at the center of a number of controversies. Ralph McCloud was named head of the CCHD in November 2007. In his first year as head of the CCHD, according to public records, McCloud also worked as the Treasurer for Planned Parenthood endorsed Democrat Wendy Davis.

Why would the director of the CCHD, during his tenure as head of an ostensibly Catholic institution act as champion and treasurer of a campaign for a pro-abortion politician seeking to oust a pro-life politician? This is the textbook definition of scandal.

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop’s website, “the CCHD fully upholds the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of human life from conception through natural death.” But acting as Treasurer for a pro-choice politician means that every single yard sign, every press release, every brochure or pamphlet of the Davis campaign had Ralph McCloud’s name on it. So in short, while heading up the CCHD, McCloud was very publicly working against the stated goals of the organization he oversaw.

Isn’t that a bit confusing to Catholics? Isn’t that in itself a scandal to the faithful?

McCloud himself labeled questions about another CCHD employee John Carr’s commitment to the pro-life cause “very disturbing allegations” which he believed were unfounded. CMR believes it to be equally disturbing that McCloud would work for a campaign garnering donations from Annie’s List (a pro-choice PAC), Planned Parenthood and ACORN. So pro-choice was the Davis campaign that in fact, Annie’s List, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Davis in 2008 while McCloud worked as Treasurer. The group even gave a spirited endorsement of the pro-choice Davis, who succeeded in defeating her pro-life opponent.

Here is the website of the CCHD showing Ralph McCloud as director. Here is a bio piece on Ralph McCloud produced by the USCCB when he was named director of the CCHD.

McCloud has coordinated the peace and justice ministry in the Fort Worth Diocese and directed CCHD in the diocese since 1995. He has headed the diocese’s African American ministries since 1990. He also serves as a board member of the Roundtable, the National Association of Diocesan Social Ministry Directors.

Active in the civic community, McCloud was elected to four two-year terms to the Fort Worth City Council, in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2003. He served as Fort Worth’s mayor pro-tem from 1999 to 2005. He currently chairs the Mayor’s Commission on Homelessness in Fort Worth.

In other civic activities, he was president of the Fort Worth Local Housing Development Council and served four terms on the National League of Cities’ Human Development Steering Committee.

McCloud attended Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas, and was co-founder of the African-American Summit for Peace, Justice and Equality. He is a past-president of the National Association of Black Catholic Administrators.

Msgr. David Malloy, USCCB general secretary, noted McCloud’s reputation as a “respected and experienced social ministry leader with strong ties to CCHD.”

“Ralph’s profound commitment to the Catholic Church enables him to communicate the biblical, theological and spiritual dimensions of Catholic social ministry and the principles that guide CCHD’s mission of empowering people trapped in the cycle of poverty,” Msgr. Malloy said.

Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth praised the appointment saying, “Ralph has served the Diocese of Fort Worth for 14 years, assisting faithfully both the late Bishop Joseph Delaney and myself. He will be a great asset at the USCCB.”

Wendy Davis was on the Fort Worth city council with McCloud prior to her run for the state senate. I find the bio of McCloud interesting for two reasons. He is obviously a man who has received a lot of training by the Church, and it clearly had zero impact on his ability to comprehend that working to elect a total pro-abort betrays everything the Church stands for . The second reason is that he is a poster child for the lay “professional Catholic” Church-o-crat, living off Church employment, while working against Church teaching; a bad waste of donations to the Church, and a phenomenon that Catholics have become all too familiar with since Vatican II.

From all of this we can draw the following lessons: A pro-life Catholic would have to be an idiot to give a thin dime to the CCHD, and the USCCB is not to be trusted. Of course we already knew both of these things before, didn’t we?

11 Comments

I am not only not contributing to the CCHD but also to my parish and diocese. That may sound wrong, but my parish and diocese now show the same consequentialist thinking on immigration as the USCCB. The diocesan paper is pure propaganda for illegal acts and shill for those who would corrupt marriage. There are plenty of other charities that can benefit from my tithe.
Those who abuse the faithful should receive none of the fruits of our hard work. No more for those who play Hosea’s Harlot until they reform.

I have been a long time observer of the peace and social justice crowd at the USCCB. That group’s advocacy of the left wing democratic party platform (but I repeat myself) is of record. The CCHD is the financial play pen of the USCCB lefties. What I have not been able to determine is, aside from its enormous reliance on government lucre, how much USCCB funding comes from our collectin plates?

I NEVER contribute to the CCHD for the reasons stated in this article. I also wrote my pastor a letter explaining why I would not be contributing to our parish $6 million Capital Campaign. He was gung ho on having Jack Jezreel’s “Just Faith ” program in our parish & enthusiastically introduced “Just Faith ” graduates at Mass. I told him there was nothing Catholic about this “social justice ” program. My assertion was underscored when our bulletin announced the “Just Faith ” book club, where they were going to discuss Barbara Ehrenreich’s socialist tome, “Nickled & Dimed “. I explained that “discussing” the positive aspects of a Marxist, atheist, pro-abortion author had ZERO place in a Catholic parish & only reiterated my claim. Happily, we got rid of “Just Faith ” in our parish. Sadly, it moved two parishes away. Had a chat w/ that parish pastor, who tried to school me on “Catholic Social Teaching”. I tried to school him on naïveté and being a “useful idiot “.

My diocese of Springfield, Ill. opted out of CCHD a couple of years ago and replaced it with a diocesan collection that awards grants to local organizations — with the stipulation that organizations promoting abortion, contraception, same-sex civil marriage or other beliefs/practices contrary to the Catholic faith do not qualify. Other dioceses have done likewise:

I am disappointed that the USCCB’s promises in 2012 to correct and reform the CCHD failed to bear pure and wholesome fruit.

The temptation to dabble in political activism has distracted our bishops from their essential duties. Instead of funding strangers with strange beliefs, has your bishop taught his flock the necessity of Christian citizens of a democratic republic to vote and vote with an informed Christian conscience? Has your bishop reminded his flock of the Ten Commandments, including the ones against murder and covetousness and how obedience to the Commandments should shape a Christian’s vote?

There’s plenty in a bishop’s essential duties to keep him too busy to dabble in politics-by-proxy. When a bishop does his basic job, he’s making plenty of political statements, setting a political example, and moving his flock toward making politics but one expression of their faith in Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

Micha Elyi: “…has your bishop taught his flock the necessity of Christian citizens of a democratic republic to vote and vote with an informed Christian conscience? Has your bishop reminded his flock of the Ten Commandments, including the ones against murder and covetousness and how obedience to the Commandments should shape a Christian’s vote?”
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Too many bishops have bought into Roe v. Wade, that the newly begotten child has no soul and therefore it is not murder. The unwanted pregnancy is a burden on the mother and increases the overpopulation.
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The Immaculate Conception is the truth about the child and his soul. Divine Providence will care for overpopulation.
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This is posted elsewhere: Assassinating the character of the newly begotten sovereign person by framing him as an invader, a parasite causing the death of the mother and the unwanted pregnancy, Roe v. Wade made a right of privacy to abort and kill the invader, the parasite, the unwanted pregnancy.

Science has proved that the new individual cell has its own DNA. Metaphysics tells us that the new sovereign person has an immortal human soul endowed with free will, intellect, sovereign personhood, all unalienable human rights and the promise of eternal life.
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The conjugal act invites the new life, the new individual person, a party to our constitutional posterity. The word “invite” means to offer life to another person. The man and the woman exercise the power of their sex to invite another person into life. When the unborn child is conceived, the parents become a mother and a father. As parents, the father and the mother must host their child, the testimony to and the evidence of their love…this is why marriage must be from love.